Security cameras are used in a variety of applications and operational environments. As one example, security cameras may be employed by a retail establishment to monitor for any criminal activity at the establishment. Indeed, such cameras may be employed in the interior of the retail establishment to monitor and prevent retail theft. Security cameras may also be employed in the exterior of the retail establishment, e.g. a parking lot, to monitor various activities.
Such exterior security cameras must be able to withstand the elements. Typically such cameras utilize a rugged exterior housing with an internal camera module. Because the internal camera module includes sensitive electronics, it is necessary to prevent the ingress of moisture and other contaminants, e.g. particulate matter, into the housing. The housing typically is a two-part assembly having a front cover and a back cover. The front cover usually includes a lens with which the optical sensors of the internal camera module are aligned with. The back cover usually includes a mounting hole pattern for surface mounting the camera to a wall or other flat surface using screws, bolts, rivets, or the like. The back cover may also include a conduit port for connection to electrical conduit that in turn carries wiring which extends into the housing and is operably connected to the camera module.
To prevent the aforementioned ingress of moisture and/or particulate matter, several areas of such a security camera must be sealed. First, a gasket is typically positioned at the union of the front and back housing covers to prevent the ingress of moisture at this location. Second, the hole pattern on the back cover must be sealed using a sealing substance such as room temperature vulcanizing (RTV) silicone. The conduit port typically utilizes water tight National Pipe Thread (NPT) threading to seal this port.
Achieving the seal between the front and back housing covers and the conduit port is relatively simple. To seal at the union of the front and back housing covers, the same are simply tightened together to compress the above discussed gasket. To seal at the conduit port, conduit is simply threaded into the port. Due to the NPT threading, a liquid tight seal is achieved at this region.
Unfortunately, sealing the hole pattern on the back cover is quite time consuming. Typically, this hole pattern incorporates a variety of holes and slots to offer an installer a variety of installation options to accommodate various installation location configurations. Each one of the holes and slots must be sealed using RTV silicone or a similar sealant. Such an operation is tedious and time consuming. Additionally, it has been found that one or more of these sealed locations on the back cover will often-times fail leading to the ingress of moisture and/or particulate matter, and ultimately, camera failure. As such, there is a need in the art for a security camera that reduces or entirely omits the above described back cover sealing operation to ultimately provide a relatively rapid-install, robust camera system for exterior use.
The invention provides such a security camera. These and other advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.